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Research Activities

An HIV vaccine is urgently needed. The Kent lab is working towards this goal. Better vaccine strategies are needed to prevent HIV infection and disease. This requires an understanding of how HIV causes AIDS, including which immune responses control HIV replication and which contribute to disease. A better understanding of effective immunity will expand the pipeline to novel treatment and prevention strategies.

Current projects:

ADCC responses to HIV and Influenza

B cell responses to Influenza

Immune escape from H/SIV

Env-specific T cells

Treg cells and H/SIV

Nanoparticle vaccines

NKT, MAIT cells and CD1-restricted T cells and H/SIV

Influenza-HIV vaccines

Research Keywords

Techniques/Expertise

To further understand how immune responses can control HIV, we have developed multiple assays to measure immunity and the effect these immune responses have on the virus. We recently developed new techniques to measure antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). We developed a very simple assay on small volumes of blood to measure ADCC responses and are now studying how useful it is in people with HIV and whether it forces the virus to mutate to escape this potentially important response. Although T cell immunity is effective against the virus, immune escape is a hallmark of effective T cell immunity.

Collaborations

Drs David Cooper, Andrew Lloyd, Greg Dore, Anthony Kelleher, Sean Emery University of NSW Dr Martyn French, University of Western Australia Dr Damian Purcell, University of MelbourneDr Rob CenterDr Miles Davenport, University of NSWDr Dale Godfrey, University of MelbourneDr Andrew Brooks, University of MelbourneDr Frank Caruso, University of MelbourneARC Centre of Excellence in Bio-Nano ScienceNHMRC program grant on HIV

Disease Models

Primate models of HIV/SIV and InfluenzaMouse models of HIV and OVA vaccinationHuman clinical trials of HIV and Influenza immunity